Facilitating Text and Art Strand for Newcastle University 2nd year Fine Art Students

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I am excited about facilitating my first Fine Art session of the new academic year (2019-2020). I am leading one of the strand electives for the Newcastle University second year Fine Art students. I have written the programme documentation and will be delivering all the sessions. Here's is a brief introduction to what's in store for the students!

This strand is about exploring the use of text within artworks.

I will begin by giving a brief history of the word in art from 20th Century. We will look at examples of artists working with text, and consider the different forms that text can take in an artwork such as through writing, performance and sound. We will discuss how the form of text changes the meaning of an artwork and alters the way that an audience engages with the artwork. We will think about how text can be an individual artwork, or act as a component for a larger artwork.

It is not about writing about art, writing text to accompany exhibitions or writing about your practice e.g. artist statements.

Teaching will take a number of forms, including individual 1-1 tutorials, seminars and group sessions presenting and discussing ideas and artworks. The strand will culminate in a group exhibition. Students are expected to work together to plan their contribution to the exhibition, and think about the most appropriate way to realise their artwork.

Circus Between Worlds Rehearsal with artists from Edinburgh and Glasgow Schools of Art

Spent an exciting and productive day at Edinburgh School of Art meeting with the artists taking part in Circus Between Worlds from Edinburgh School of Art and Glasgow School of Art. 



After some initial performance warm up exercises, we showed each other the performances that we are developing for Circus Between Worlds.

A musical jellyfish performance

A wandering, stumbling, shuffling, music making creature

Tatoo woman

Fortune Telling mermaid

Hand whistle

Darth Vadar

Workshopping circus noises for Deanna Smith

Newcastle University Learning and Teaching Case Studies website goes live

Since December 2014 I have been employed by Newcastle University, working within the Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS) to review, amend and update the Case Studies of Teaching Practice resource. A new website has been created to host the case studies, and this week it has been launched and gone live!

Check it out...

http://teaching.ncl.ac.uk/casestudies/

The case studies offer examples of Newcastle University staff members' teaching practice. Their case studies aim to share what works for them and their students, and to support larger conversations about learning and teaching. 

Currently there are 100 case studies, with this number constantly increasing. The case studies are wide-ranging from the use of social media in lectures to the introduction of a student peer mentoring scheme.

The practices vary but the case studies are all based around the same 5-question structure:

1. What did you do?
2. Who is involved?
3. How do you do it?
4. Why do you do it?
5. Does it work?

The idea is that anyone interested in any of the case studies can contact the author of the case study for more information. It is hoped that the website will encourage staff to look at teaching methods used by different staff members, and from different faculties. 

My job involves corresponding or meeting with different staff members to assist in the writing and submission of their case study. I am fascinated by the teaching methods used and strategies employed in order to enhance the learning experience of students. I hope that you find the website as interesting as i do.